Edit a surface

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We have built our existing ground surface using various data sources

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including topographical survey information.

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However,

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some of the information we have used has

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caused some errors in the surface formation.

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A good way to locate surface errors is to display the surface as contours

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where contours are closely packed together.

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It's a good indication of points in the surface with incorrect levels.

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We're now going to edit our existing ground surface

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to fix some of the errors in the surface.

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From the view ribbon tab on the named views panel,

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restore the view area. One using the restore view pull down.

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We can see the contours are very close together around this point in the surface.

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This point was created when we added text entities to the surface.

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This text is a tree label and doesn't represent a height on the ground.

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When we ran the command, move text to elevation.

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Civil 3d couldn't convert this text to A Z value

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and so it remains at zero.

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This has resulted in a zero elevation in our surface.

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We could remove the text entities from the surface,

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delete the tree labels

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and then add the text again.

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But we have an easier way to fix this problem.

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Select the surface by picking on the contours

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and on the surface. Contextual ribbon tab,

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select surface properties

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in the service properties on the definition tab

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expand the build options.

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These are settings that control how a surface is

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built and we can edit them at any time.

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For each individual surface.

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We have a setting to enable us to control the elevation range in a surface.

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Click in the value column of exclude elevations less than

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and set it to yes

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in the elevation less than column set the value to 0.01 ft.

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This will exclude all zero value elevations

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click OK. And rebuild the surface.

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You can see that the surface has been corrected and the contours are displayed

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on the view ribbon tab restore the view area two.

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Here we have a similar problem but this time the elevation text values are wrong

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and are displayed in meters.

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We're going to fix this error by deleting these points from the surface,

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select the surface and from the contextual ribbon

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tab select edit surface and then delete point

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civil 3d displays a message telling us that there

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are no service points displayed for us to select.

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It suggests that we edit the service style and try again

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with the surface still selected right click and choose edit surface style.

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This will take us into the style editor for the style currently in use

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on the display tab edit the plan view direction and turn on points and triangles

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click, OK.

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The surface points and triangles are now displayed

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zoom into the elevation value on the left,

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select the surface and on the ribbon tab,

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choose edit surface, then delete point,

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pick the blue cross for the first surface point to be deleted,

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then pan across and select the second surface point.

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Press her to accept the selection,

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the points are deleted and the surface will update

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from the view ribbon tab,

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restore the view area three

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here. The problem with the surface is a bit more subjective.

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The contours appear to be pulled sharply in

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one direction along this highlighted triangle side.

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We're going to improve the surface by swapping edges.

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Swapping edges is the process of flipping

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the common side between two adjacent triangles.

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The result of this edit can make a dramatic change to the surface,

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select the surface,

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choose edit surface on the surfaced contextual ribbon tab

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and then swap edge,

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pick the triangle side to be swapped and the triangle will update

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press escape to end the command.

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Now restore the view area four.

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Here we have a similar problem but this time we have multiple triangle sides to swap.

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We're going to do this by adding a brake line to the surface.

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Draw a polyline between the two points shown

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without snapping to anything

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drawing close to the points is good enough

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in prospector expand the existing ground surface and expand its definition

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select brake lines right click and add

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the brake line we're going to add is a two D polyline.

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So set the brake line type to proximity,

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a proximity brake line only needs to be close to the surface points.

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The brake line will be applied to the closest points to the line.

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No heights are added to the surface but the brake line will realign the triangles

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click. Ok, then slip the polyline and press enter,

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review the changes to the surface.

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Finally select the surface and go to the surface properties

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on the definition tab of the surface properties.

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The lower half of the dialogue shows the operations list.

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Civil 3d saves a history of all operations and edits made to the surface.

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Here, we can undo and redo operations to the surface

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deselect the a

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contour data operation

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click OK and rebuild the surface.

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You can see that the contour data we added to the surface has now been removed,

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go back to the surface properties and in the operations list

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reselect the a contour data,

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click apply and rebuild the surface.

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The contour data is added back into the surface

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using the operations list. We can remove an operation permanently.

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We can also select operations and using the arrow buttons on the side,

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we can change the order of operations if we need to.

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We've now explored some of the options for editing a surface

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and we have fixed some of the mistakes in our existing ground surface.